...Imagine never having to touch your keyboard again. Imagine writing your ciao reviews simply by talking to your computer, and seeing the words magically appear on the screen. More importantly imagine school pupils with severe learning problems producing coherent essays by using their powers of speech alone.
This is the scenario promised by voice recognition software. There are three main...

DisadvantagesDoes get uncomfortable after a while unless you're used to it

...I got myself a copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking, a piece of voice recognition software I have reviewed. Using my desktop microphone to input text was inefficient and IRRITATING because it picked up background noises easily, thought they were words and was not picking up what I saying very well. I kept reading that I should be using an approved noise cancelling headset with the voice recognition...

...The idea of voice recognition software, where you can happily dictate and your computer types away for you, certainly appeals to me. IBM ViaVoice sounded like a great concept, until I tried it. After spending ages plodding through the process of getting it to 'recognise' my voice, I tried it out. The result? Total and utter rubbish! It was very disappointing, no sentences came out correctly...